Q & A Part2

Are you guys sick of hearing about me yet?

Molly asked:

what would you have for you last meal?

Appetizer: my husbands bruchetta
Main: our crab cake recipe
Side: more bread with butter
Dessert: warm homeade apple pie with Tillamook Vanilla Bean ice cream
*each course accompanied by a perfectly selected very expensive glass of wine

Alisa asked:

What made you start triathloning/running/exercising? Was it one moment in time, an event, etc?

I started running in 2005. Although I was an athlete in high school, I spend my 20’s drinking, drugging, and smoking. I was living in Germany while building a ship for a few months and even a pack-a-day smoker like myself got sick of all the smoking. I swore the day I left Germany I would quit. I ended up getting sick (for the hundredth time that year!) a week before we left and I couldn’t smoke for  a few days. I figured that was as good a time as any, so I quit. That was the last cigarette I ever had. And ever WILL have!

At the time, I was good friends with a girl (who happened to be Ethiopian) and she would take me out to the track (on the ship) and run/walk with me. Basically I just replaced smoking with running. Even though my Ethiopian friend (whom I’m sad to say I lost contact with) wasn’t a runner in the sense that she ran regularly, the girl could RUN. She would get on the treadmill and bust out a 6 or 7 minute pace for an hour while I piddled around on the weights and elliptical. The kicker was, she didn’t even break a sweat. You could serve tea on her ass and it didn’t budge. Rock solid glutes. Like a sprinter. But also stamina. It was in her blood and it was beautiful to watch. She’s the main reason I started running, but the desire to finally be good to my body is the reason it stuck.

since you’re giving up dairy (and cheese, so sad) what’s your favorite dairy-free recipe?

I know. So sad. I don’t think I’ll give it up completely after the 21 day commitment, but I do think I’ll be more restrained and picky about it.

One recipe that I loved even before I went dairy free is from this cookbook. She rocks and also has a blog. This is my version from memory – but I totally recommend the cookbook.

drain a can of white beans and add in a single layer to a large hot skillet that’s oiled with evoo. Stir to coat beans then let them sit long enough to brown on one side (~4 minutes) then turn and brown on other side. The beans should be golden and a bit crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside at this point. Salt em’ up. Add a coarsely chopped onion (white, yellow, or sweet works best here) and chopped garlic to taste. Cook for a few minutes until onion soften. Stir in 6 or 7 large chard leaves that have been cut into 1/2” pieces and a couple of the stems. Cook until they begin to wilt. Remove from heat and salt and pepper to taste. As with any meal, you can choose to sprinkle with parmesan, but I actually eat it without whether I’m dairy-free or not. It’s hearty and healthy. And quick.

tell us something unique about your hometown?

In all seriousness, Gig Harbor is uniquely beautiful. But probably most known around the country for this:

Today, there are two big beautiful suspension bridges with a toll in it’s place.

Kristen (great name!) from inspired by dooce, asked:

if you were independently wealthy, what would you do with your life?

I would contact Bravo and convince them to film, “The Real Housewives of Gig Harbor”

Kristen (another great name. and so rare that we all spell it the same!) from Kristen keeping up  asked:

Where are you from?

Originally from Olympia, WA which is the state capital of Washington State but an alarmingly large amount of people think it’s Seattle. My parents live in the same house I grew up in and my immediate family all still live there.

How long have you lived where you live and if different than number 1 what brought you there?

I’ve lived in Gig Harbor for 3.5 years now. Before that I lived in Virginia Beach with my husband, but always felt like a fish out of water there. I had a hard time making friends since I was a “non-traditional” college student and didn’t work. People there were pretty snobby. I consider myself a very social and easy going person who has never had a problem making friends, but it just never felt like home there. With Chris being gone for extended periods of time, living a block from the Beach just wasn’t enough to make me happy. I had no social network.  It wasn’t an East Coast thing, it was a Virginia Beach thing.

After about of year of living there we started looking for a house back on the West Coast. I knew of Gig Harbor because it’s only about 30 miles north of my hometown and knew it would fit the kind of lifestyle we wanted:  water city, reasonable distance from the airport, family valued community etc. Once my husband realized what we could get for the same amount of money on East Coast – he was sold. We spend our honeymoon looking at houses here. It took about a year to sell our condo in Virginia Beach. We finally sold the condo and purchased the home we wanted up here all within 30 days (which I did all alone FSBO while he was gone – imagine doing THAT with the frustrating communication issues! Gem I tell you).

One of the first things I did was search out the running store and fortunately he had just opened months prior. It was good timing, and within weeks I had girlfriends! I also have the convenience of going to my parents house for a day or two while Chris is at work.

How did you and the husband meet?

My husband and I met on a cruise ship. We were both working. He was an engineer and I was a housekeeper. When we first met we were on a ship in the Caribbean, but he was there to work and I was there to party. He was the 1st Engineer and responsible for the Engine department (and keeping the ship running). I was a housekeeper and responsible for getting my ass to work on time. I only knew of him as my friends’ (the engine guys) boss. He rarely came out with us because he was busy being responsible. Shortly after, he left the cruise industry and went to work on a real ship. I stayed. A couple of years later we found ourselves working in a shipyard in Germany building a new ship. We became friends and I developed a crush on him. BUT he was a tough cookie to crack because he is painfully shy. I was always inviting him out with us but he always said no because he had too much work to do. When I invited him to my birthday party at a local bar and he showed up, I knew I had him.

When we finished the ship and left Germany (which we sailed to Hawaii) we signed off the ship and spend a few days in HI. That solidified our relationship and we spend the next year doing long-distance. A year later he proposed and I moved to Virginia to live with him. We’ll be 4 years married next month.

If you could have unlimited spending to any ONE store what would it be?

Good question. This is also a hard one. Just ONE store………….for a lifetime?………Harbor Greens.

It’s not just an awesome grocery store (think Whole foods, only local and much smaller) – they also have a wine bar! That means FREE WINE BAR AND FOOD FOR LIFE people.

If you could title your life with the name of a book or song so far what would it be?

Wow, your good at though provoking questions! Definitely something sassy. Like this.

(Alisa, I’m saving your challenge question for it’s own post)